Margaret Fuller's Rhetorical Analysis

According to Mary Urbanski, “Margaret Fuller is the most important woman of the 19th century” and author of Woman in the Nineteenth Century, which was the intellectual foundation of the feminist movement (3). By including Transcendentalist thought in her arguments, which have their basis with her feminist predecessors, Fuller brought the issue of women’s rights beyond the social sphere to the inner self as the focus that would change society and its institutions rather than revolution or political action. Cole argues that Margaret Fuller’s contribution to the feminist tradition deserves more recognition because she expanded upon arguments and appeals made by her predecessors, but I argue that its her unique rhetorical style combined with her

Woman versus Women”, Cole argues that Fuller went beyond both feminists by going beyond the political and social aspects of the movement to add new elements concerning the potential of humanity’s divine nature (Cole). Comparisons of Fuller to Wollstonecraft made due to similar views shared by both that women haven't been given the opportunity to succeed/ 'take their rightful place' without being met with restraint and opposition (Duran). Like Wollstonecraft, Sarah Grimke’s work appears in her writing but isn’t explicitly mentioned even though Fuller’s Great Lawsuit depends on Grimke’s “Letters on the Equality of the Sexes” (Cole). Though both sisters were controversial for their public speaking role, Fuller went beyond that in Woman to include the voices of women past and present who she saw as role models for being in harmony with the natural law to support her argument (Cole). Fuller’s belief in transcendental quality (divine nature of humanity) made it possible for her to extend her argument to include equality going beyond society in a utopian society where humanity lives in accordance with the divine law